What is Reverse Speech?

Reverse Speech – which, as its name suggests, is simply language that occurs backwards in speech – is yet another channel by which the subconscious mind can communicate.

Reverse Speech occurs involuntarily and simultaneously with forward speech. It is determined not only by the choice and order of words spoken in the forward direction, but also by sighs, inhalations, stammers and other speech disfluencies. Because Reverse Speech is composed of non-word sounds as well as word sounds, it is difficult if not impossible to extract speech reversals from a written transcript of forward speech. In other words, just taking a forward-speech transcript and reading its letters backwards usually will not reveal speech reversals. However, Reverse Speech can easily be heard at the conscious level when forward speech is recorded and played backwards out loud.

Reverse Speech is almost always complementary with the forward speech occurring at or near the same spot where the reversal arises. This principle is known as the Theory of Reverse Speech Complementarity, and it can be very helpful in providing context for the interpretation of a speech reversal. For example, if someone is talking about a murder in forward speech, there is a very high probability that the speech reversals from that segment of audio will relate to the murder as well, and not to what the speaker saw on television the night before or what’s on his to-do list for the weekend. A speech reversal can confirm or contradict the corresponding forward speech – depending on whether the speaker is telling the truth or lying – and can also expand on the topic of forward speech, providing additional information.

Reverse Speech appears to be a universal human characteristic, and the frequency of reversals can range from one every few seconds to one every few minutes, depending on factors such as the spontaneity of the speech and the emotional state of the speaker. Many reversals will be too cryptic or fragmentary to be of use, but in any recording of more than a few minutes, there are almost always some substantive and understandable reversals.

For a wealth of additional information about Reverse Speech history, Reverse Speech applications, and decades of research by Reverse Speech pioneer David Oates, see: www.reversespeech.com

What sorts of recordings can be analyzed for speech reversals?

The Husick Group has provided Reverse Speech analysis on matters ranging from individuals seeking deeper self-knowledge of their own financial or personal situations, to attorneys interested in the veracity of their client and the intentions of opposing parties, to government officials assessing statements of alleged terrorists.

We can conduct Reverse Speech analysis on almost any audio recording in the English language. The quality of the recording will determine the level of subtle sound distinctions that can be made and number of reversals that can be identified. The audio quality of a typical broadcast news program is more than sufficient for Reverse Speech analysis, and even the quality available from a hand-held recorder is often sufficient.

Types of recordings that we can analyze for speech reversals are:

Publicly available material that a client asks us to analyze, such as political speeches, broadcast interviews, and YouTube videos.

Client-submitted audio recordings such as witness interviews, interviews with potential business partners, or any other privately made recording. Audio recordings submitted for Reverse Speech analysis must be legally obtained, and we may require the informed written consent of the speakers on any client-submitted audio recording before conducting Reverse Speech analysis.

Recordings of Remote Viewing sessions conducted by Husick Group remote viewers. Not surprisingly, when one of our remote viewers taps into the vast reserve of information available to the subconscious mind during a Remote Viewing session, the speech reversals of the viewer tend to be frequent and relevant to the target being viewed.

How should Reverse Speech results be interpreted?

As is the case with Remote Viewing results, Reverse Speech results should be interpreted carefully.

When analyzing an audio recording for speech reversals, it is critical that the Reverse Speech analyst be able to separate the gibberish from true reversals that communicate information from the subconscious mind of the speaker. To impose some discipline on the natural human tendency to search for patterns, the Reverse Speech analyst is trained to consider a set of checkpoints including syllable count, clarity of vowel and consonant sounds, clarity and distinguishability of word beginnings and endings, spacing of words, separation from the surrounding gibberish, and tonal flow and tempo. While a low rating on these factors does not necessarily exclude the possibility that a reversal is genuine, it indicates a lower level of confidence and allows the user to weight the information accordingly.

Even when the above-mentioned checkpoints are taken into account, additional caveats are in order. In many cases, an apparent reversal may be the result of speech sounds that resemble actual words simply by coincidence. Short reversals, especially single-word reversals, are more likely to be the result of coincidental sounds than are longer reversals, as the odds of resembling coherent language by chance fall with increasing syllable count.

Another important caveat to be aware of when considering a possible speech reversal is the problem of analyst projection. Unlike the remote viewers, who generally work “blind” to the details of a target, the Reverse Speech analyst typically is aware of the nature of the target at the time he or she is analyzing an audio recording. As the analyst strives to catch any potentially relevant reversal, he or she may occasionally project meaning onto gibberish that is actually meaningless.

Homophones can be another complicating factor. For example, it matters a great deal whether a suspect in a weapons case generates a speech reversal about seeking “the piece” or “the peace.”

The subconscious mind often speaks in metaphors and cryptic phrases, and the correct interpretation of a speech reversal may not be obvious, even if the sounds themselves are clear. For example, on one project conducted by the Husick Group, the speech reversal “Irish groom” was found in an audio recording of a remote viewer describing the person of interest. The sounds of the reversal were clear enough, but the forward speech did not provide enough context to assist with interpretation. Did it have to do with horses? Was it a metaphor for some sort of Irish familial connection? The correct interpretation became known only after the person of interest was located and mentioned that she had been the hairdresser for a prominent Irish-American family.

Even when the challenges of finding a genuine speech reversal have been overcome and metaphors do not appear to be present, interpretation can still be an issue. As a hypothetical example, imagine that an audio recording contains a crystal-clear speech reversal of “drug problem.” That speech reversal could be an indication that the speaker has a substance abuse problem. But there could be a number of other reasons that the speaker’s subconscious mind generated the reversal “drug problem” – perhaps the speaker is concerned about someone else’s substance abuse problem, or the problem that concerns the speaker is not abuse but rather insurance coverage for a needed prescription, or perhaps the word “drug” refers not to a chemical substance but to the physical act of dragging something. In other words, there may be instances where a speech reversal raises an issue, but does not provide enough information to completely resolve it. In such cases, Reverse Speech can still provide valuable insight by highlighting areas that warrant further inquiry.

For all the reasons described above, when an issue or concern is raised by a speech reversal, the Husick Group strongly recommends that the client conduct follow-up inquiries and research using independent methods before making important decisions or taking actions affecting others.